Rainy Days

Chapter 13

***13~ Lilli

After the dinner with Mason, I really had nothing to do. My parents were still gone, working or fighting or meeting with Linda, their marriage counselor, which meant I had the house to myself for the fourth time that week. I stood in our living room for a while, wondering if I should do something productive like exercise or maybe do the laundry that was slowly piling up.

In the end, I plopped down on the couch and turned on the tv, which was usually how I spend my Saturday nights. I flipped through the channels before settling on reruns of Supernatural, and curled up onto the couch. One of our dogs, Harley, curled up next to me with a sigh. Harley was a German Shepard, but she thought she was a lap dog. We both barely fit on the couch, but it wasn't too hard to get comfortable. Sandy was curled up on the floor in her bed, quietly sleeping.

Luckily, during the dinner, I'd had enough sense to get Mason's number, and I stared at my phone. Would it seem too desperate to text him twenty minutes after I'd seen him? I mean, he was my boyfriend, but I couldn't help but to feel too clingy. I decided to just wait until morning, and turned my phone off. Just as I'd settled into a pleasant sleep, my front door banged open and my mother stormed in. I braced myself for yelling, but my father wasn't with her.

"Where's dad?" I asked her. She glanced at me and swiped at her eyes, walking down the hallway.

"You need to go take a shower, it's after midnight," she said, her voice echoing
down the hallway. She shut her bedroom door and I felt tears start filling my eyes.

"Okay," I called weakly. Then I decided I wasn't satisfied. I hadn't had a real conversation with her in days, maybe a week, and that wasn't okay. She didn't get to decide when to be a mother.

I walked down the hall and knocked on her door.

"Mom?" I asked timidly. I heard movement behind the door and a muffled "I'm trying to sleep."

"Where's dad?" I asked, trying again. A silence followed.

"That is between me and him. You need to stop poking your nose into our relationship. I already said that I was trying to sleep," she said. Although it was muffled through the door, it was every bit as hurtful.

I felt my insides burn as I turned away from her room, but then I turned back.

"If you're going to get divorced, then do it already!" I said angrily, walking into my room and slamming the door.

For a long time, I laid down on my bed and wondered whether or not I felt any remorse for what I'd said.

I decided that I didn't.